Friday, April 6, 2012

“I was very proud of my Lutheran faith. I would argue with my Catholic friends till I was blue in the face. I remember being invited to go to Mass with one of my Catholic friends. I went and remember sitting there thinking what am I doing here. What is this “Hail Mary” that they kept repeating in prayer before Mass started. I sat during the whole Mass, not saying a word, with this big chip on my shoulder thinking they got it all wrong.

“During my high school years, I thought I was a good kid. I didn’t go out and party. I didn’t drink. I didn’t do any drugs. I was co-captain of the baseball team. I was on the National Honor Society. I studied hard and just didn’t get into any trouble. I wanted to save my virginity for marriage. The future was bright.

“I started dating. I had a steady girlfriend. I really thought I loved her. We did everything together. As are relationship started to get deeper, the temptation for us to engage in pre-marital sex got stronger. So strong that we got to the point that we just gave in. Throughout the next eight years this became a major problem for me. I started to live a very unchaste life. Looking back, I realize now that I really didn’t love her, but I was enslaved to the sin of premarital sex and an unchaste lifestyle. This downward spiral led me to living a lifestyle that was very destructive.

“When I was in college, and my girlfriend and I went separate ways, I started to drink alcohol heavily. Every day. I started to smoke pot, and experiment in other drugs as well. I decided that I wanted to be the party animal, to be the cool guy. I partied so much that after 2 years of college at Wright State, I quit and went to work full time so that I had more money to party on. I jumped from relationship to relationship, from girl to girl, not caring if I hurt them. All I cared about was taking care of my wants and desires. I spent most of my nights in bars, and I was several thousands of dollars in debt……..”